National computer recycling legislation revived

Legislation that would create a national computer recycling program has …

Two congressmen have revived a piece of legislation that would establish a national standard for computer recycling efforts. Called the National Computer Recycling Act, the bill would create a US$10 administrative fee paid by consumers that would be added to the purchase price of PCs and monitors that would be used to fund recycling efforts.

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) are attempting to resuscitate the bill for the third time. The legislation was originally proposed by Congressman Thompson in 2003, but died in committee. Since that time, two states — California and Maine — have instituted statewide recycling programs. California's program only covers recycling of monitors, passing the costs on to consumers, while Maine has cities footing the bill for desktops and monitors through 2006. Some PC makers, most notably Dell, have created their own programs.

The sponsors of the bill are hopeful that it will make it through Congress this time and head off what could become a 50-state morass of different regulations over recycling computer equipment and peripherals. If the legislation passes in its current form, a coordinated effort between representatives from manufacturers, recyclers, waste management companies, environmentalists, and local governments would be headed up by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Prospects for the legislation may be better this time, as the problem of what to do with obsolete equipment is growing. Electronic components are not made out of the most environmentally-friendly materials, and as more and more consumers decide its time to replace the old Packard-Bell running Windows 98, the sheer number of unwanted PCs will continue to grow.